Gonçalo Mabunda:

‘Peace, Reconciliation and the Potential for Transformation’

October 2025 

This show is dedicated to the work of Mozambican sculptor, Gonçalo Mabunda, and it is hosted in collaboration with Emory University’s Michael C Carlos Museum’s Fall Exhibition Insistent Presence.  

Mabunda’s solo exhibition at aKAZI.ATL provides the place and framework for a wide cross-section of Atlantans to experience Mabunda’s sculptures, starting with his early works and ultimately tying to his contemporary works which are a central part of the Insistent Presence Exhibition. 

The aKAZI exhibition builds a tactile and narrative throughline to contemporary Mozambican history from the immediate peace and ceasefire at the end of the twenty year Mozambican Civil War in 1993 and in particular the St. Egidio brokered end to that conflict. At that time, Gonçalo was among the local artists commissioned to transform weapons of war such as AK47s, rocket launchers, and pistols into objects of beauty which were used in Mozambique's truth and reconciliation journey. His method of choice was and remains the anthropomorphization of weapons to channel the multiplicity of human feelings released by the peace process. Now, Gonçalo's thrones and sculptures are held in many major museums and institutions across the globe. 

The show opens on Sunday, October 5, 2025 in the presence of Gonçalo Mabunda. On that afternoon he will also be in conversation with Lauren Tate Baeza (Fred and Rita Richman Curator of African Art at Atlanta’s High Museum) and Atlanta based, Congolese sculptor Masela Nkolo. Together they will explore the centrality of sculpture on the African Continent both historically and contemporaneously

The exhibition will also serve as a conversation starter for ways and means of truth-telling and reconciliation in post-conflict societies through related events such as performances by Atlanta’s Bushwick Book Club centered on the work of Mozambican author Mia Couto and a solo performance by renowned cora player Anthea Sully Cole on Saturday, October 18 and Sunday, October 26 respectively.

Watch Mabunda’s feature below.